Chapter 9

Chapter 8: Because gumdrops are cooler than jelly beans

It may have been the blurry vision or perhaps the fact that he had started smelling a pervasive stink. Either way, Rey realized that he had played just about enough videogames. His fingers felt sore and his brain felt heavy. But somehow he just couldn't stop.

Just one more game. He promised himself for the nineteenth time.

Belatedly, he heard something akin to an argument being carried on outside his apartment door. A second later, somebody opened it and walked in noisily.

It took Rey a second to focus and when he could he saw that it was Sharon. Sharon with a scrunched up look on her face.

"Something stinks here like a dead mole rat." She announced.

"It's probably me." Said Rey, focusing back on his game.

"It's definitely you!" said Sharon, taking a tentative sniff and scrunching up her face even further.

"What was that all about?" Rey asked.

"What?" asked Sharon, distractedly, as she tried to find a place to sit amid the clutter of energy drink cans and takeout containers.

"Who were you arguing with?" asked Rey, shoving a stack of pizza boxes off his couch to make room for her.

"Oh, just Swayam." Replied Sharon, airily. She sat next to him in a huff.

"What happened?" asked Rey, slightly irritated.

By the time Sharon finished telling her story, Rey had a whole new set of headaches.

"Really Sharon, sometimes you can be so darn heartless!" said Rey, with a disapproving tone in his voice.

"What the hell did I do?" asked Sharon, absently squishing the cans with her foot.

"If you were to realize just how much Swayam has given up for you, you'd probably wish that you could be buried alive." Said Rey, bluntly.

"What are you talking about?" asked Sharon, confused.

"What I'm trying to say is that Swayam goes out of his way to help you and all you do is turn around and treat him like crap. You know, Swayam is not argumentative by nature, or moody or impulsive. But you bring out that side in him. You bring out the best in him Sharon, but you also bring out the worst. Swayam is a great friend but sooner or later he'll probably reach the end of his patience and realize what a crappy friend you are. And before that happens, I suggest you go and apologize the crap out of him. And he'll probably forgive you too because nobody in this world cares about you as much as he does. Not even me." Finished Rey.

Sharon looked utterly despondent at his speech but Rey felt a flicker of pride. He'd had just about enough of their nonsense and it was time to set things straight. Rey knew that coming from anyone else this speech wouldn't have been received with such a calm temperament. However, there had never been the need to sugar coat things between Sharon and Rey. They could always count on each other to be blunt.

"What all has Swayam given up for me?" asked Sharon, in a small voice.

Rey looked around for his pack of cigarettes, craving a smoke. But he usually avoided smoking in front of Sharon as much as he could. So with a tired sigh, he leaned back on the couch.

"Well, for instance, you remember that girl in 9^th grade, Daisy? And you remember how Swayam had been plucking his courage for almost a year to ask her out?" asked Rey. When Sharon nodded, he continued, "Well he did ask her out and they were supposed to go on a date but it also happened to be the night when you found out that that moron Davis had been cheating on you. So when you called Swayam and me to help you throw bricks through his window, Swayam decided to skip his date for you. In case you haven't noticed Sharon, you almost never cry. You get angry instead and throw bricks through people's windows. And Swayam knew how much that meant to you. So he came."

"He never told me this!" said Sharon indignantly.

"Did you ever think he would?" asked Rey, rhetorically.

"Where does he get off making me feel like a horrible friend? I'm going to go and apologize to him right now!" said Sharon, standing up, in all her wilful glory.

"You do that." Said Rey, rubbing his eyes sleepily. "Only I'm pretty sure he has a shift right now and if you were to go and shout an apology in the middle of an operation theatre I'm pretty sure you'd invite a lot more stares than usual."

"Right. I'll go later then." Said Sharon, sitting down again.

"Rey."

"H'mm?"

"Thanks."

"Anytime." Said Rey, giving an almighty yawn.

"I don't know what I'd do without you." Said Sharon, thoughtfully.

"Hopefully you'd never have to find out." Said Rey, smiling.

"And I know you'd probably fall asleep before I finish this sentence but..."

But Rey never heard the rest of it.

*******

Swayam cricked his neck, once, twice. Thankfully, today hadn't been as tedious a day and apart from the healing bruises on his back, Swayam felt quite fine.

Well, physically speaking. Mentally, he was just on the verge of being clinically insane. His mind was a riot of thoughts, all of which could be summarized with one word: Sharon.

Swayam hated Rey. He absolutely loathed him.

It's all his fault! Thought Swayam.

For months now Rey had been constantly informing him that he was in love with Sharon.

He wasn't. He thought firmly.

So how do you explain all this? Said a snide voice in his mind.

He looked down at the table he was sitting at. On it, a few pencils and several sheets of paper were scattered about. Swayam had once shown a keen interest in art and had pursued it to some extent before he realized that it wasn't something he would like to do on a daily basis. So now he indulged in it occasionally, so much so that he had collected quite a heap of half-shaded sketches and half-coloured paintings. Swayam rarely managed to complete an artwork.

And recently, his half-formed talent had taken the most ill-natured turn. An instance of that sat on his desk even now, being the fourth in a row. First he had started off with the face. It had been acceptably good, save the eyes. His next two drawings focused solely on sketching her eyes. He got frustrated quickly, however. His fourth drawing though came as a complete surprise to him. He didn't think it had been a conscious effort.

He looked down at it, seeing it completely for the first time.

On a soft, silky duvet sat Sharon, looking over her shoulder, only her back visible. Her eyes had come perfect this time, as they twinkled with promising mischief. However, the most striking feature of the sketch, Swayam realized, was that her back was completely bare. The silky duvet was gathered about her and her auburn hair fell down her back in artistic curls, giving her a truly ethereal look. But even through the curtain of her hair, Swayam could make out the softly drawn curve of her body.

Swayam had been wrong though. That wasn't the most striking aspect of the drawing. It was her lips that were truly intriguing. Swayam had drawn it such that they were curved in an eternal half-smile; the classic Sharon smile. Without thinking, Swayam reached out and touched them with a slight brush of his thumb. Immediately, they smudged a little. But that just gave her a little pout, making it all the more endearing.

Disgusted, Swayam crumpled up the paper, opened up a drawer with unnecessary force and threw the rumpled up piece of paper in there. Then with a sigh he sank his head into his hands.

It was while before he heard the doorbell ring, he was so out of it. He opened the door to see the last person he wanted to see, standing there.

"Sharon." Said Swayam, unable to keep the dismay out of his voice.

Sharon apparently caught on with that for she frowned visibly. It clashed horribly with her appearance for she was wearing a yellow sundress, looking quite literally like a ray of sunshine.

"Ok, I realize that you hate me and all but could maybe look a little less tortured?" Said Sharon, looking forlorn herself.

"What do you want, Sharon?" asked Swayam, his expression softening a bit.

Before Swayam could realize, Sharon lunged at him, unexpectedly, hugging him with all her might. Out of habit, Swayam wrapped his arms around her and lifted her slightly off the ground (for Sharon was quite a bit shorter than him).

Now Sharon wasn't in the habit of hugging people all over the place. She reserved hugs for special occasions only which is why Swayam stood there half-confused, wondering what he had done to merit such a favour.

When he went to release her though, she continued to cling to him, ferociously so, so he held her, with one hand wrapped around her waist and the other unconsciously stroking her hair.

"You're an unbelievably idiotic pig and I ought to pull out your hair for making me feel so awful," began Sharon, mumbling into his neck, "but you are also an annoyingly good friend and I would hate it if you were to die."

It took Swayam a moment to realize what she was talking about and another to understand that this was Sharon's version of an apology. He laughed heartily then, his entire body and consequently hers, shaking with it.

"Good," said Sharon, releasing him and smiling rather cheerfully, "now that that's done with, do you have any gumdrops? I'm very much in the mood for gumdrops."

Swayam smiled then, albeit a little sadly, for it was at this moment that he came to realize that he was very much in love with his gumdrop-craving best friend named Sharon.

*******